Myths about St. Francis and Chant

So I know that St Francis banned Gregorian chant, but I can’t find any
explanation of why he did so. Sts. Francis and Dominic were
contemporaries and I’ve always heard stories (legends) of them trading
belts/cords upon meeting so it can’t be just a separation of the times
in which they lived. So why did St Francis ban it when St Dominic (or
his children) embraced it so readily? Was there a theological reason,
some reason he believed it somehow harmed the community, or did St.
Francis simply dislike it?

I’ll have more to say about the relationship between chant, simplicity, and humility later today, but we should also address what I’m sure is going to be an immediately detectable trend: the ubiquity of the “Prayer of St. Francis” song that you will find in your hymnal.

The music is by Sebastian Temple, written in 1962. The text is not St. Francis. It was written during World War I as a prayer for peace, inspired by the popular image of St. Francis. But it is not his prayer. The sentiment is fine and worthy but it is absolutely and indisputably inauthentic.

Long before the Internet came along to settle all such questions, I personally read the works of St. Francis, looking for this prayer. What I found was a a surprise to me. His writings were actually quite severe and stern and not for the lax of mind and spirit. Nothing in them suggested the Woodstock spirit people somehow associate with him today, much less anything like modern environmental politics. Above all else, this prayer is not in there.

I suppose it does no good to point this out. The “Prayer of St. Francis” will undoubtedly make a gigantic return and become inescapable in the coming years.